The body of the instrument is constructed of birch plywood, and the neck and head are of pine, as are all four tuning pegs.

The ukulele has the correct fret spacing required to produce notes separated by a semitone, as is the case on a normal-sized uke. In fact, it is an exact, to-scale replica of a commercially available Soprano ukulele – but 7.5 times larger.

Lawrence first got the idea to build the world’s largest ukulele after helping his son construct a regular-sized one for a science project at school.

The record was verified during an event in a music store in Lansing, Michigan, where Lawrence demonstrated his giant ukulele could really play, as required by the Guinness World Records rules for this title.

“Holding a Guinness World Records title is a distinct honour, knowing my instrument could meet the requirements I had to try,” said Lawrence.